Articles About Charter Schools

Here you will find a mixed assortment of articles about Charter Schools In Texas, some specific to Houston. We hope these will help our new homeschoolers make an informed decision about Public Charter schools.

Charter schools: A real choice?

http://www.tcta.org/edmatters/charterfeature.htm

While vouchers remain the most contentious school choice topic, charter schools have more recently come to the forefront in the school choice debate. Longtime supporters of the charter school concept, including teacher associations, are rethinking their stance given the recent headline-grabbing stories on charter school closures and fiscal mismanagement, dismal accountability ratings in Texas, and a new federal report showing 4th-grade charter school students performing a half-year behind public school students. Charter schools do offer school choice, but is it a meaningful one? A closer look may shed some light on the future of charter schools in Texas and the United States.

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Charter Schools: Look Before You Leap

http://www.hslda.org/courtreport/V18N1/V18N102.asp

In California and across the nation, we are alarmed by the growing number of Christian home schoolers who are enrolling in charter school programs. Below is a summary of most of the reasons why we are concerned. This is based upon my full-time research and advocacy work in behalf of private home educators in California for the last 15 years.

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Senate backs tax cut, teacher pay hike

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3178410

AUSTIN - Property owners would see their school taxes cut by one-fourth and teachers would find more money in their paychecks under an education finance bill passed Wednesday night by the Senate.

House Bill 2 would boost school spending by $2.8 billion over the 2006-07 biennium, with all teachers getting $3,000 raises and some qualifying for additional merit pay.

The final vote was 27-4, with Houston Democrats Rodney Ellis and Mario Gallegos joining two other Democrats in opposing the bill.

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Charter schools' scores lag behind those from public schools

http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/9975165.htm
AUSTIN - Students at Texas charter schools are performing well below other public school students on the state's standardized tests, according to a newspaper's review of test scores.
Forty-two percent of the students at the 235 independent charter campuses that administered the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills passed the test, The Dallas Morning News reported Thursday. The overall passing rate for all public school students was nearly 67 percent.

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Two schools set standard in excellence

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/schools/03/charter/2039097

In a landscape dotted with state charter schools that have trouble meeting academic standards, a few in the Houston area have learned what it takes to excel.

KIPP Academy and Yes College Preparatory School are foremost among them. They've been rated exemplary every year since they were granted state charters in 1997. The secret of their success -- longer school days and teachers with a missionary zeal to get every kid into college.

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Many parents turn to charters as a last resort

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/schools/03/charter/2039092

Delisa Kennedy had seen a sign about the charter school in the window of a gas station. She figured she had nothing to lose.

Her daughter, Darylisha Brooks, who was 14 at the time, wasn't doing well in her neighborhood high school. She had skipped classes so often she was going to have to repeat her freshman year, and the single mom didn't know where else to turn. Her daughter was smart enough, she knew, but had an "attitude problem." The sign, advertising a charter school called Crossroads, appeared to be her only hope.

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POLITEX: BUSH CHARTER SCHOOL SYSTEM IN SHAMBLES AS HE PUSHES FOR NATIONAL MOVEMENT.

http://bushwatch.org/charter.htm

A couple of weeks ago in Seattle, Bush said he may not be super-smart, but he's a good administrator. That's not true when it comes to his Texas charter school system. Yet, in Milwaukee last week, he said when it comes to education we should "set high standards and high expectations," neither of which he has done in Texas. He said the charter school movement "should encourage local folks to develop accountability measures," which has not happened under his guidance in Texas

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Tougher standards could be enacted for 'alternative' Texas charter schools

http://www.houstonianonline.com/

DALLAS (AP) - A dramatic increase in the number of Texas charter schools seeking "alternative education" status has led some charter school experts to question whether so many campuses deserve to be held to a lower standard.

In the last four years, the number of Texas charter schools seeking "alternative education" status has shot up from 62 to 166. Charter schools with that designation are exempt from the state accountability standards used to evaluate every other campus in Texas.

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Texas Charter School Legislation and the
Evolution of Open-Enrollment Charter Schools

http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v13n21/

Abstract
This article chronicles the evolution of legislation for Texas open-enrollment charter schools to their implementation by demonstrating how these schools have (or have not) used their freedom from state-mandated requirements to develop innovative learning environments as well as to bring innovative curricula into the classroom. The investigative focus was on an analysis of Texas open-enrollment charter school legislation, from 1995 (74th legislative session) to the 77th legislative session in 2001, and the characteristics of the state’s

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